Raising Morale
by Vanilla Bean CEO
Summary: Morale is the state of mind. It is steadfastness and courage and hope. It is confidence and zeal and loyalty.


**Boosting Morale **

**Summary****: **Morale is the state of mind. It is steadfastness and courage and hope. It is confidence and zeal and loyalty.

**Disclaimer: **Product may contain nuts.

**Warnings: **None.

* * *

Dr. Nicholas Rush sat near the controls of Destiny with his head in his hands. He know he didn't have time to do this but he felt like he couldn't get on with anything without sifting through his thoughts first.

What a bloody mess.

When he had dialled that nine chevron address he hadn't thought it would lead them to a decrepit Ancient ship. Maybe to an Ancient society or somewhere they could stop, satisfy his curiosity and then return to Earth.

Damn his curiosity, it had led what was left of the base into a perilous, life but more likely death situation.

He heard footsteps and then someone sat down next to him, "Whatcha doing?"

Nicholas lifted his head and found himself looking at a young woman with messy brown hair, "You look kinda worried."

"And you're not?" He asked, "We are stranded on a ship with no life support and no way to get back to Earth. There is everything to be worried about."

"That sucks." She agreed, "Do you want some chocolate?" She held out a bar of Cadbury chocolate, "I want to get rid of it all before it completely melts."

"You have chocolate?"

"Yeah. My roommate back home thought I was going to visit the 'rents so she filled my purse with the 'essentials'. Are you sure you don't want any? Chocolate makes everything better."

Nicholas took the proffered chocolate and the two sat in silence for a while, "Haven't we met before?" he finally asked.

"Yep. I made coffee for you and that O'Neill fellow while you waited for me to read that non-disclosure agreement."

He nodded, that had been before everything went wrong. "Ah yes....Jensen."

"Yeah, that's me. Though really, I'd prefer if you used my first name which happens to be Amelia, which is a much nicer name for a girl than Jensen.

"Right....This must be awful for you."

She shook her head, smiling slightly, "Not really."

He seemed surprised at this, "Not really? Everyone is shouting that we're going to die and you say not really?"

"Hey, I've spent my whole life watching Doctor Who and Startrek and Battlestar Gallactica. Ever since I wrote that essay on the flaws in that stupid internet game I've been on two what are they?" She paused searching for the word "....deep space carriers?, visited another planet, been through a _stargate_ and gotten stranded on the second of those two carries. I know that this is a bad situation but this is single coolest thing ever to happen to me." She cocked her head to the side, "You don't think so?"

"No. I do not think so."

"Shame." She shook her head and began fishing around in her oversized handbag. Without word she pulled out a box of chalk, selected a white piece and began scribbling on the wall. Within minutes there was a small and rather accurate drawing of the Earth, laid out as though on a map.

"This is our home." She said, pointing to the map, "We will see it again.... well probably, anyway."

"If we don't get life support systems back online soon then everyone will die within the next 24 hours."

"Well aren't you Mr. Optimism...Jeez, you're a smart guy, you should be able to figure this out!" Amelia paused, "Tell you what, you get this fixed and I'll give you an item of your choice from the bag of tricks!" She shook her bag.

"What exactly is in that bag?"

"I have no idea, I didn't really bother looking before....hang on." She opened the bag and peered inside, "Uhh....more chalk, heaps of post-it notes, sharpies, three books, a colouring in book, peanuts, crayons, mobile, ipod, magnets, hair brush, beads, pliers..."

"Pliers?"

"You wanted to know....Sewing kit." She was pulling things out now, "Chewing gum, band-aids and 3-D glasses. Wow."

"That is quite a haul."

"My friends don't do things by half. So which of these do you want? In exchange for you fixing life support. Aww...come on, we need to get this stuff fixed but if you sit here all mopey-like nothing is going to happen, and yes we will all die. So choose your damn prize and get on with it!"

Rush sighed, secretly admiring the woman's resolution, "What books are there?"

Her smile nearly split her face, "The Da Vinci Code and....The Time Travellers Wife and The Five Ages of the Universe. Oh god, she actually packed me something to study."

"Alright, hand over the universe one."

She did so with a flourish, "Excellent! That's the one I didn't want. Now you need to stick to the bargain and fix life support and everything else, yes?"

"Alright, lets see what we can do."

As Amelia watched Rush renewed his efforts to fix the ship but she could see lingering doubts in his eyes. She would need to come back to reassure him later but for now she had other people who need morale boosts.

* * *

I may or may not write more about Amelia later.

- Nila out.


End file.
